Steve Blank

MAY 9, 2017

The founders were simply wrong about their assumptions about customer needs. It turns out the term “visionary founder” was usually a synonym for someone who was hallucinating. Founders Need to Run the Company Longer. So, almost like clockwork 20 th century startups fired the innovators/founders when they scaled.

Restful 227

Restful Silicon Valley Puerto Rico San Jose 227

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

Gogii came in my office in 2009 with three of the most talented founders I had seen. Scott Lahman , Zack Norman & Austin Murray were the three co-founders of JAMDAT, the most successful mobile 1.0 I’m on record all over place saying that 70% of my investment decision is the team & 30% is the market.

Later Stage 310

Later Stage South America Mobile Silicon Valley 310

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

What stage? Should I trust my instincts for founders and products or should I be more focused on the market size or business plan? Because entrepreneurs often went to lawyers at their earliest stages to get their company registration done. I asked for intro’s from entrepreneur friends. What price? I hustled.

Deal Flow 347

Deal Flow Early Stage Investment Bankers Technical Review 347

David Teten

JUNE 22, 2012

HBS Angels of NY and the NAIC have named the finalist women and minority entrepreneurs of the Venture Capital Access Program; check out the press release below. VCAP© is a collaborative venture that provides women and diverse entrepreneurs nationwide with access to venture capital through accredited investors within the HBSAANY network.

Programming 128

Programming Accredited Investor Naming New York 128

David Teten

JUNE 22, 2012

HBS Angels of NY and the NAIC have named the finalist women and minority entrepreneurs of the Venture Capital Access Program; check out the press release below. VCAP© is a collaborative venture that provides women and diverse entrepreneurs nationwide with access to venture capital through accredited investors within the HBSAANY network.

Programming 114

Programming Accredited Investor Naming New York 114

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2019

The reality today is that capital is more available than ever and entrepreneurs have become more sophisticated, so founders are looking for more than just cash from their venture backers. You've seen how venture capital works from both sides--as an entrepreneur and a venture capitalist.

Lean 108

Lean Venture Capital Conversion IPO 108

View from Seed

JANUARY 5, 2016

At the beginning, a startup team is typically just a couple of co-founders. What we suggest at this juncture is that founders get acclimated to the tactics of scaling beyond the founding team. What to Address During Genesis Team Building: How do we divide and conquer responsibilities as co-founders?

Founder 120

Founder Cofounder Startup Early Stage 120

View from Seed

MAY 18, 2016

The purpose of a board is not simply to be the founders’ friend… it is to help govern the company and provide input into its strategic direction. And various stakeholders (investors, early founders no longer operationally involved, etc.) Decided to proactively add one or more independent board director is useful as well.

Seed Stage 216

Seed Stage Cofounder Later Stage Government 216

The Next Web

JULY 29, 2013

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Christian Reber, CEO and co-founder of Berlin-based 6Wunderkinder. It’s part two of a series, cross-posted from his own blog , in which he draws on his experience to offer advice for aspiring entrepreneurs in Europe and beyond. Co-Up , mobilesuite , Raumstation.

San Francisco 125

San Francisco Cofounder Germany Europe 125

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

What is it, and how should founders think about it? From a company milestones perspective, entrepreneurs who take on venture debt are almost always thinking about raising that next round of capital from other institutions. NVV: Let’s talk about the seed stage specifically. but the underwriting of it is much different.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

Up and Running

AUGUST 19, 2014

Many angels are entrepreneurs themselves, or executives and business or community leaders. The type of deals and industries they invest in, the company stages, and the amount they invest depends on the individual or angel group. I am impressed when the entrepreneur talks to me about solving a specific customer’s problem.

Angel Investor 161

Angel Investor Technical Review Due Diligence Startup 161

The Next Web

AUGUST 26, 2013

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Christian Reber, CEO and co-founder of Berlin-based 6Wunderkinder. It’s part three of a series, cross-posted from his own blog , in which he draws on his experience to offer advice for aspiring entrepreneurs in Europe and beyond. 60-70% for founders. 10-20% for employees.

Management 120

Management Cofounder Startup Bootstrapping 120

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

To learn more about this space, I suggest join an online community I co-founded, PEVCTech. . Small investment firms often have interns and entrepreneurs in residence passing through, each of which is a security risk. Data companies focused on early-stage startups include Aingel , fundsUP , Preseries , PredictLeads , and Sploda.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 9, 2021

Looking back, I believe that Jeff is one of most iconic, successful founders and CEOs of all time. This can serve as a guiding light to other entrepreneurs and CEOs. Jeff is also one of the few founders I know of who sets OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) for his board members. You can listen to the entire podcast here.

Leadership 42

Leadership Technical Review Cofounder Later Stage 42

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

Even for later-stage companies with predictable financials, the lack of liquidity, audited financials, and standardized metrics creates real challenges to scaling quantitative investing. Signal is a fundraising tool for founders run by NFX Guild, which identifies the most relevant VCs for you. . 3) Originate investments.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 30, 2012

Did I mention it only took the founder a month? The other entrepreneur quoted in the story is from a guy pitching a Pinterest clone. They're just not very good at raising venture capital--which, in the later stage, has more to do with your own ability to run a sales process. There is no fork.

Venture Capital 114

Venture Capital Marketing Term Sheet Software Review 114

View from Seed

MARCH 19, 2015

Founders laud their own “end-to-end” thinking. He’s dubbed the approach “ pretotyping ,” and it shares many of the same principles as both its similar-sounding (if later-stage) cousin, prototyping, as well as the more well-known lean startup movement. And the word pretotype was born.

Product 120

Product Technical Review Marketing Lean 120

Austin Startup

JUNE 30, 2017

But as with education, that bundle of resources can be unbundled, and that’s what’s happening among entrepreneurs who don’t need or want the “full package.” Background / Related Reading: Founder Education Gatekeepers and Ecosystems What is the purpose of universities? First-time entrepreneurs often start out with virtually no network.

Curation 48

Curation Startup Cofounder Equity 48

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

One of the hardest things about the fund-raising process for entrepreneurs is that you’re trying to raise money from people who have “asymmetric information.” As an entrepreneur it can feel as intimidating as going to buy a car where the dealer knows the price of every make & model of a car and you’re guessing at how much to pay.

Valuation 324

Valuation Post-Money Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Cofounder 324

David Teten

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

Summit Partners and TA Associates have leveraged their origination programs to move into later stage buyouts. At ffVC, our primary origination strategy is to provide a high level of services to entrepreneurs, and then let word of mouth spread. They’re the entrepreneurs on the cutting edge of their respective disciplines.

Private Equity 114

Private Equity Venture Capital Technical Review Equity 114

David Teten

JANUARY 13, 2015

I’m speaking on a panel this afternoon on fundraising for minority founders at the Rainbow PUSH Wall Street Project. Fundraising is always difficult for all founders; the median PE/VC fund sources and reviews 87 companies before investing in 1. This young, talented girl is given no chance of being the founder of the next Facebook.”. “I

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Advisory Board Greece Cofounder 60

David Teten

JULY 25, 2017

A nalysis – One of the luxuries of being a VC is that we have a larger data set than most entrepreneurs of performance. Based on our data set, we help our entrepreneurs measure, understand, and report their performance. N etwork – We organize events regularly to build out our community. For example, consider public relations.

Portfolio 60

Portfolio Technical Review Private Equity Database 60

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 2, 2015

Resilience – the ability to bounce back from adversity – is one of the key attributes of entrepreneurs and was the focus of my first weekly radio show, Entrepreneurs are Everywhere , on Sirius XM Radio Channel 111. Kathryn shared the painful lessons she learned when her first startup fell apart. Broken startup dreams.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur New York Cofounder Equity 120

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

It’s what life was like as an entrepreneur. But this is nothing like the stress of being an entrepreneur. What’s it really like being an entrepreneur? You’d imagine that every founder was getting rich. Actually, positive outcomes for founders are quite rare. I’m reminded of this feeling.

Monaco 420

Monaco Cofounder Chicago Mexico 420

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 21, 2021

I’m a female founder. I don’t have a technical co-founder. These are all of the things I heard from a founder that I recently backed. So what about all of the above statements—things that founders widely hold to be true barriers to fundraising? Nearly half of the teams I’ve backed have female founders.

Venture Capital 162

Venture Capital Cofounder Deal Flow Later Stage 162

Austin Startup

JUNE 27, 2017

Looking for Funds in All the Right Places: The Definitive Guide to Austin Capital By David Altounian and Stephen Straus OVERVIEW For entrepreneurs: We’ve compiled a definitive list of sources of capital in Austin to help focus your fundraising efforts. We’ve compiled a definitive list of sources of startup capital in Austin.

Venture Capital 54

Venture Capital Austin Texas Private Equity 54

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 1, 2016

by Krista Morgan, CEO and co-founder of P2BInvestor. Full disclosure – any kind of financing comes with costs, whether it’s interest payments, equity, and/or your very valuable time which, as an entrepreneur, is the thing you will always wish you had more of. Krista Morgan is the CEO and co-founder of P2BInvestor.

Finance 100

Finance Angel Investor Cofounder Later Stage 100

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

Previously she was Co-Founder and CEO of SNAZZ, a cloud-based event management platform. What are some of the unique benefits and constraints from the point of view of a founder? . However, founders shouldn’t take money from corporate VCs because of an exit expectation.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Technical Review Portfolio 60

Agile VC

OCTOBER 5, 2012

One of the most common questions I get is “What’s the best career path to becoming a founder someday?” ” The very short answer is that most people who are ultimately founders (or usually co-founders ) of a company “tack” towards that goal in a series of career steps.

Founder 217

Founder Cofounder Later Stage Operations 217

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

It is the first in a series of posts he’s writing about the decisions a young entrepreneur needs to make when she/he is first starting a business. One of the things I do as a founder of a later stage startup is to meet with early stage entrepreneurs to help them get their companies going. and Google.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

Reid Hoffman

JANUARY 19, 2021

When entrepreneurs gather to swap war stories, whether they’re meeting in person or virtually, one of the biggest categories of horrific tales are bad board stories. Every entrepreneur I know has them; I’ll even share a few of my own in this essay. Right now, our whole bet is on the CEO and the founders and making them successful.

Startup 36

Startup Cofounder Advertising Hiring 36

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2017

This followed the firms founder Don Valentine handing leadership early to Mike Moritz and Doug Leone who then entrusted Jim Goetz. It’s what creates opportunities for the entrepreneurs and it’s what helps them produce great returns for the LPs. And so it goes. Lindel Eakman led the discussion with Fred and Andy.

Leadership 161

Leadership LP Venture Capital Silicon Valley 161

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 30, 2011

Watching an entrepreneur fail is sad, but watching but watching them fail from a lack of nerve is tragic. After a demo and lunch, the VC (who normally did later stage deals) wrote my ex student a check for a seed round. The first thing that I noticed was that Bob couldn’t seem to find a co-founder. Steve Jobs.

Customer Development 330

Customer Development Cofounder Later Stage Software 330

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 26, 2022

So, think of the typical two founders with a pitch book in a garage. Instead, that’s the sort of pre-series-A investment where companies or founders have visions of where they think there are underserved market needs, and they’re coming up with something super excited to try to solve that. . We’re a crossover fund.

Partner 132

Partner Cofounder Retention Acquisition 132

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2010

One of the most difficult things to do as a first time entrepreneur is to get to know the investors you might be working with if you accept money. He got into the industry through the same traits required for entrepreneurs – persistence & resiliency. Founded 2007 in Boulder, CO. So how did Mike get into VC?

San Francisco 230

San Francisco Los Angeles Cofounder SMS 230

Version One Ventures

MAY 22, 2018

When we think about pitches, most of the focus is on entrepreneurs pitching investors for capital. Some of the best later-stage investors walk founders through an institutionalized “reverse” pitch. What are the experiences of other founders in the investor’s portfolio? Outside of formal check-ins (i.e.

Cap Table 60

Cap Table Cofounder Syndicate Syndication 60

Reid Hoffman

OCTOBER 17, 2018

This meant hiring someone who had experience with much bigger organizations, the idea being that their experience would come in handy at a later stage. The Darwinian competition is so fierce that your organization needs to be all-in on the current stage of scaling. In today’s startup world, this rule no longer applies.

Finder 28

Finder Rhode Island Cofounder Engineer 28